Pie crust stuff

[Old Crank]

I have finally stepped into the 1980s and have a small foodprocessor. Came as an attachment to a stand mixer.
So I tried pie crust pastry, twice now. I have to say that I don't save much time when you add the cleaning of the machine and parts. But this has given me some of the best crusts that I have made. Sonit looks like I'm a convert.

Recipe:
150 gram flour
1 tsp salt
140 gram unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
4 tablespoons ice water, give or take.
Standard procedure for pie crust dough.

[Grasswire2]

1. whatever works is great.

As a pie baker for my son's popular coffee house, and throughout my adult life, I've used my aunt's recipe. It's a totally different method. It brought me two marriage proposals (neither of which I accepted) and a lot of happy family gatherings.

It's basically an emulsion made with boiling water and the fat, beaten to be light and fluffy, then the dry ingredients stirred in. It's ultra fast. Dough goes into the freezer for as long as you want it there. I'm about to take some out of the freezer and use up the frozen rhubarb.

Nothing makes you as popular as a reputation for well-made, delicious pies. Keep it up!

[mahina]

2. Bookmarked and Recc'd for this comment. Thanks, I'll try again.

[cilla4progress]

3. My trick is

a tablespoon of white vinegar!

Makes for a flaky crust that covers for a universe of evils I may impose on it - generally, rough handling!

[2naSalit]

4. That's my basic recipe...

But I would never use a food processor and I just eyeball the ingredient amounts. I have a local reputation for my pie crusts. I got my recipe from a cookbook published back in the 1940s.

[Grasswire2]

5. hmmm

My Aunt Dorothy's recipe is from a Good Housekeeping cookbook -- likely the same era.

It's nice to have a local reputation for pie. I considered opening a shop. But capital funding was too much hassle to think about.

[2naSalit]

7. Someone asked me if...

I would make them for small restaurants but, that's work. I spent several years working in the kitchens of touristown and never want to do that again or anything like it.

I make my pies for the pleasure of making and enjoying them, I don't want to ruin that.

[Old Crank]

9. People have asked me if I wanted

to do a restaurant. No. That is working for a living.

Year ago I saw two places that might have made sense to run/own.
Both did lunches only in a business district Monday through Friday.

[2naSalit]

12. A restaurant of any size...

Isn;t a full time job, it's a marriage.

[Warpy]

6. That's about all I ever used a food processor for, cutting in shortening

because the ,machine did such a good job of it. Other things, meh, I'd rather use knives and a cutting board, the cleanup is easier.

The real secret to pie crust is a little practice, knowing how much water to add. The dough should be very crumbly but with a slight sheen of water here and there. It should be packed into waxed paper, foil, or plastic wrap and rested in the fridge at this point, to allow all the water to be absorbed and the gluten to relax.

it's a little more forgiving than a lot of people think it is. It's self correcting, since a slight wet dough will need more flour for the rolling out and a slightly dry dough will need less.

[Old Crank]

8. Yes,

That is all I have used it for. I have a chef's knife for pretty much everything else. Clean up is wipe it off under running water and dry with a towel. Easy Peasy.

[Old Crank]

10. I have noticed that most pie crust recipes

are very similar.
Flour.
Butter or shortening or lard (which is out of favor. My mother used lard.)
a little salt and water to bring it together. Chill and roll.

I was using frozen butter and grating it into the flour.
I've heard about Vodka, vinegar.
The heated oil is one I haven't heard of before.

Now my next trick is getting the blind baking down so my prebaked crusts don't turn become the size of cookies...

[tishaLA]

11. IMO, the most important part is resting it

after you roll it out, it's tempting to just blind bake it right away, but it's better to chill it and let the gluten relax for ~1/2 hour. It has the additional benefit of making the crimped (or whatever) edge hold up better.

I always forget to dock the dough, but it comes out fine

[dem in texas]

13. Ina Garten's Pie Crust recipe

Yes, I have to get out my food processor to make this recipe, but it makes a fine crust, This recipe is for a top and bottom crusts or for single crusts for 2 pies. I used to make it often, but more and more I am using the refrigerated crust from the super market.

Ina Garten's Perfect Pie Crust (Makes two 10-inch Crusts)

12 tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water
Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the top crust.

[Old Crank]

14. Very similar

Flour to fat ratio.

I roll the rolled out crust over my rolling pin to transfer it to the pie plate.

It is all good.